Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering Re: Redbook Total Carpet 9May 29, 2010 12:16 am Agree with Scott B. We were tempted to get SDN before, but the nylon from the Total range appears to be a better quality. The carpet guy showed us water spilled on both, and the Redbook Total carpet does not absorb water due to its stain protection while the SDN absorbs straight away. Re: Redbook Total Carpet 10May 29, 2010 12:06 pm Mrslin, While the Total range is a good choice, don't be swayed by salesperson 'tricks'. The water test you described is a perfect example. If you are looking at good quality SDN products, then they should have been treated with a stain protection chemical which would give you the same result as the water test as the Total. There are only a few SDN products from some manufacturers that aren't treated, which gives you the result you experienced, but not all SDN's are that way. As I said before, the Total range would be fine for your home, and feel confident in your selection. Scott Re: Redbook Total Carpet 11May 29, 2010 12:33 pm Yes, but also the water repellency demo is not a conclusive test. Yarn density plays a big role here too. I could show you a high quality dense wool carpet (that IS very absorbent) repelling water too. The point is, carpets with protective treatments can still allow liquid spills to soak into the carpet, (even though the stain resistance IS working) as liquid may still get down between the yarns. Initial water repellency will allow you to blot most liquid up before it soaks in, but don't think because liquid soaks soak in that the carpet is not performing well. Ash. Re: Redbook Total Carpet 12May 31, 2010 9:16 pm The beading on the surface actually relates to the atomic behaviour of the yarn. The total product is treated with a negative ion treatment causing the attraction between foreign items (spills) to be greater than otherwise. This causes the spill to attract itself to itself (does that make sense haha ) so it doesn't go down into the carpet. The ion treatment kind of makes the fibre negatively charged which forces spills to bond to one another, not the carpet - which is why it beads. That carpet floats. I sat in a science lab at watched the tests a few years ago prior to it's launch. I am not 100% but I think it's called r2x by Shaws in the States. Re: Redbook Total Carpet 13May 31, 2010 9:19 pm And yes Ash you are right. The new Smartstrand has greater stain resistance than total, BUT you can spill water on it and it doesn't bead, it goes in. Just wanted to explain the negative ion treatment. If I didn't see it first hand I wouldn't have believed it. Re: Redbook Total Carpet 14May 31, 2010 10:42 pm royalblue One thing... the Redbook Total has 'Ultrabac' backing instead of jute. This is a relatively new type of backing material. It looks good and certainly has some benefits. But some layers find it a bit strange to lay, as it has a lot of stretch. Being fairly new, it may present some issues with the installation. But as long as the layers are experienced and conform to the Redbook installation procedures, it should be fine. I was called in this morning to clean a bedroom carpet that the customers' 21 y/old son spewed up all over it. It was the same carpet as described in this thread, just 6 months old. It cleaned up perfectly with little effort, so no probs there. But they had an offcut of the carpet bound next to the bed. It was all buckled and distorted as they kept a bed leg on one part of it. My point here is the Ultrabac synthetic secondary backing has strengths and weaknesses. Its good because it is not absorbent so won't hold stains in the backing. But as a loose piece of carpet, it will readily become distorted and lose shape, much more so than the jute backed carpets. So I must emphasize that these carpets with Ultrabac MUST be power-stretched as per manufacturers instructions. They have different characteristics to jute backed carpets, and layers must take these into consideration. With lots of stretch, its important to take out a lot of this in a uniform manner, so the carpet has tight and even tension. If they don't, the carpet may buckle and ruck quite readily. Redbook do have some ranges of carpets that have jute backings too. Ash. 1 11211 1 16046 they can, it's a fairly standard solution when the slab isn't recessed. the falls need to be in the main floor, if it hasn't been done then you need to ask them to redo… 4 6695 |